All posts copyright 2013–2017 by Mark Aldrich.

Today in History: June 13

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.—William Butler Yeats, “When You Are Old”

William Butler Yeats (above) was born on his date in 1865.* * * *Miranda v. Arizona was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court 50 years ago today. If one is aware of no other part of American police procedure than a police officer in a movie saying the words, “You have the right to remain silent” while handcuffing someone, this decision led to tha template. In the 6–3 ruling, Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote:

The cases before us raise questions which go to the roots of our concepts of American criminal jurisprudence: the restraints society must observe consistent with the Federal Constitution in prosecuting individuals for crime. More specifically, we deal with the admissibility of statements obtained from an individual who is subjected to custodial police interrogation and the necessity for procedures which assure that the individual is accorded his privilege under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution not to be compelled to incriminate himself.
[…]Prior to any questioning, the person must be warned that he has a right to remain silent, that any statement he does make may be used as evidence against him, and that he has a right to the presence of an attorney, either retained or appointed. The defendant may waive effectuation of these rights, provided the waiver is made voluntarily, knowingly and intelligently.

Subsequent Supreme Court decisions (Berghuis v. Thompkins in 2010, especially) have modified if not rendered a suspect’s Miranda rights to just that: something seen on a TV show. In that 2010 decision, for instance, the court ruled that a suspect who wishes to “remain silent” must speak those or similar words (“I wish to remain silent”) to indicate their desire to not speak.

* * * *Tim Russert died eight years ago today.

Paul Lynde was born 90 years ago today. The late John Forbes Nash, Jr. would have been 88 today.

* * * *Christo and Jeanne-Claude were both born on this date in 1935. She died in 2009. He continues creating monumental artworks in their name.

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Happy Birthday Yeats! it was a great day for me when you were born. ❤ Thank you for everything.

That is no country for old men. The young
In one another’s arms, birds in the trees
—Those dying generations—at their song,
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,
Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long
Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.
Caught in that sensual music all neglect
Monuments of unageing intellect.

An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress,
Nor is there singing school but studying
Monuments of its own magnificence;
And therefore I have sailed the seas and come
To the holy city of Byzantium.

O sages standing in God’s holy fire
As in the gold mosaic of a wall,
Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,
And be the singing-masters of my soul.
Consume my heart away; sick with desire
And fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is; and gather me
Into the artifice of eternity.

Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;
Or set upon a golden bough to sing
To lords and ladies of Byzantium
Of what is past, or passing, or to come.